Welcome to Noel Michaels’ Weekend Winners, the place to go for weekend best bets and spot plays from veteran handicapper and tournament-play pioneer Noel Michaels. Check back every week for a couple of highlighted selections designed to help you cash a few bets and make some money. Noel's selections have been featured just about everywhere horse racing picks can be found, including in print in the Daily Racing Form, The HorsePlayer Magazine and American Turf Monthly, online at DRF.com, Twinspires.com and USRacing.com, from the paddock on-track at Arlington International Racecourse, and on the air on HRTV, TVG, NYC OTB Extra, NYRA's Talking Horses, and on broadcast TV on WAVE-3 Louisville, ABC KOLO-8 in Reno, Nevada, and channel 72 Long Island Cablevision.

Six Beginner Betting Tools

1. Start simple with an easy guide for how to bet on horse racing.
2. Not sure what that word means? Horse racing terminology is a language of its own. Allow us translate for you
3. What the heck is a speed figure? This beginner’s guide to speed figures has everything you need to know.
4. Betting on horse racing can be intimidating. Team ABR put together some Dos and Don’ts for the new fan getting started betting on racing.
5. We all make mistakes when it comes to betting on horse racing, here are eight lessons learned from experience.
6. Figure out how much each bet will cost in advance with our Gambling Calculator, presented by NYRA Bets.

Some of this Saturday’s best racing and wagering can be found at Tampa Bay Downs which hosts an 11-race card containing four stakes races including the $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes for 3-year-olds on the road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at the two stakes races that comprise Tampa’s late daily double on Saturday, the Sam F. Davis Stakes and the $125,000 Pelican Stakes for sprinters. If we can pick the winners of these two races and hook them up in daily doubles, we should go home with pockets full this Saturday. Best of luck.

Saturday, Feb. 7

Tampa Bay Downs, Race 10, $125,000 Pelican Stakes, post time 5 p.m. ET

The Pelican Stakes has drawn a nine-horse field of speedy sprinters set to go six furlongs on the main track. #6 Silver Slugger enters this race on a current four-race winning streak including two wins in a row at Tampa Bay Downs. He’s an ultimate Tampa horse-for-the-course with eight wins in nine lifetime outings on the track, mostly at this six-furlong distance. Silver Slugger’s two most recent wins, including earning a 91 Beyer Speed Figure in a 2 ¼-length score last time, came with up-close stalking trips, and that ability to win without getting the lead will put him in perfect position in this speedy field. #8 Chrome Ghost is another horse in exceptional form coming into the race with back-to-back recent wins that should sit a good stalking trip right off the pace and is fast enough to win based on 90 and 91 Beyers in those last two starts. If you are seeking a third horse in the field with a chance at better odds on the tote board, at least for the exactas and trifectas, a good place to look is with #1 Rolando, a horse with big-time sprint potential who hasn’t had many decent six-furlong sprint chances lately. He won Gulfstream Park’s $100,000 Hutcheson Stakes at six furlongs last year and lost a $300,000 stakes race at Mahoning Valley last time out when hampered by a bad trip. He’s good enough to challenge in this spot and could get overlooked.

The Play: Bet on #6 Silver Slugger (4-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Rolando (6-1) and #8 Chrome Ghost (10-1). If you are playing the late daily double, hook up Silver Slugger and Chrome Ghost in this race to #6 Renegade in the finale.

Tampa Bay Downs, Race 11, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes, post time 5:30 p.m. ET

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The Sam F. Davis Stakes has attracted a field of nine 3-year-olds set to go 1 1/16 miles for a purse of $250,000 in a race that will award Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the first five finishers. There’s lot of interesting potential up-and-comers in the field, but #6 Renegade already has quality experience and will be the horse to beat. While Renegade is technically still a maiden, he has already twice raced competitively against Paladin, a horse widely ranked as one of the top current Kentucky Derby contenders. Renegade was the victim of a questionable disqualification in a maiden win over Paladin at Aqueduct two races ago and then ran second to Paladin last time in a good effort in Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Remsen Stakes. Renegade grew a bit leg weary in deep stretch in the longer Remsen Stakes but should have no such trouble here at this 1 1/16-mile distance. Trainer Todd Pletcher has won the Sam F. Davis a record seven times, and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. is in town for the mount. The other logical contender in the field will be #1 Confessional for trainer Brad Cox with Flavien Prat aboard. Confessional won his seven-furlong career debut at Keeneland and enters this race off a second-place finish at Gulfstream Park behind none other than Nearly, who came back to impressively win the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes in his next outing. This will be Confessional’s first route effort, and he must avoid getting hooked on a hot pace. If Confessional backs off the early lead, that could open the door for #9 Dr. Kapur to go a long way up front. Dr. Kapur’s maiden win came in wire-to-wire fashion over next-out Gun Runner Stakes winner Chip Honcho, and he could run on for a share of the purse in this race if unchallenged on the lead.

The Play: Bet on #6 Renegade (8-5) to win and play him in an exacta box with #1 Confessional (2-1). In trifectas, add #9 Dr. Kapur (5-1) to the back end of your tickets.